Of course, they let them read any book on magic because they were completely and utterly unable to use magic - hence the "disconnected" part of the work description. That did was a problem for Robert, who tried once and again to get admitted in magic courses since he was a young kid with acne on his hairless face. To pull at the very fabric of reality had lighted his dreams and inflame his heart since he had memory, but after failing the access tests so many times, the university judges tested him for sensibility to magic instead, and the conclusion was that Robert was to magic as important as a feather to an octopus flying abilities. At least they had a bit of mercy (or maybe a pang of compassion) when they saw how Robert's face fell when hearing the results. That mercy was what got him his first post as librarian, and he just kept ascending due to his methodical approach to library work until he had no constraints as to what magic books he could touch or read.
Magic has been considered a way to act on the fabric of reality but it is often forgotten that reality includes minds and knowledge. The knowledge and spells written in books on magic affects the reality around it. The more potent the magic, the more potent the effect, and that is why powerful books are covered in protective symbols and why really powerful books need to be handled with care and by equally powerful wizards, who can avoid been affected by the magic inside.
Of course, no really powerful wizard would be ordering books in a library instead of studying and practicing even more powerful magic and there's where disconnected librarians are useful.
A person sensible to magic (mostly everyone, in one degree or another) is like a magnet and books on magic are another magnet. The magnetic field of both interact, but a disconnected person is like a bit of wood.
So that evening Robert was collecting the books and ordering them, and spend the next couple of hours getting each one to its place, just like any other day at work. But this particular day, when he went back to his post, he found a very old, very wrinkled and very upset wizard tapping with his foot and waiting next to Robert's desk. The same instant Robert thought he was in trouble, the old wizard turned his glare in his direction confirming that A, Robert was in trouble indeed, and B, he could be in even more severe trouble if he dared to run away. So Robert ran to his desk and asked, as humbly as he could manage without getting servile
- I am so sorry for your waiting. How can I be of help? -
- I am Verdantisinus Primus Kertian Malathen, I expect you to be a disconnected librarian or otherwise you are of no use and should better be able to call one. -
- I am a disconnected librarian, indeed. -
- Good. This is the book I want. - said the mage, giving Robert a piece of paper. The words on the paper were but a shorthand of the actual title, since even that was dangerous in that particular case. This wizard was asking for one of the most powerful books Robert had heard about, one of the few ones which he couldn't read, not because he was not allowed to, but for the security around them. Robert swallowed, divided between fear an excitement, and said
- Please, if you follow me -
The tall wizard walked in long strides just behind Robert's hurried steps, fairly shorter, corridor after stairs after corridor after stairs, until they were before a particular wall. It was a wall covered with lead, finely inscribed with all sorts of symbols of protection, both for containment and for preventing entrance. Robert walked slower while looking for a specific patch and, when found, he took his signet ring out of his pouch, putted it on, press it against a circle in one of the symbols and indicated another to the old wizard.
- If you be so kind to use your mark in that circle...
The wizard stared the circle while doing ever so minute movements with his right hand's fingers, and then, they both were in the other side of the wall, with it. Robert could barely hold his excitement as his eyes rested on the book. Inscribed chains bound the tome to a lectern and light with no apparent source bathed the room in a slightly golden shade. The wizard walked to the book and the chains opened themselves at this, allowing the old sage to peruse the pages.
And then, everything got unexpected. The wizard grab a handful of pages, with no care at all. Robert start walking towards him, startled. The wizard rips the pages from the book, which starts crackling red and purple. The light without source blinks in gold and black. A hand gesture, and the wizard throws Robert hard against the wall. A glass orb in the hand of the wizard. Robert feels maimed and bleeding. A sudden blue flash. Robert alone. The book's crackling lightning illuminates the room mixed with the golden blinking light. Robert getting to his feet. An explosion.
Black.
Unconsciousness.
Dying.
Breathing.
Bleeding. Hurt. Light. Orange light. A lantern's orange light. A lantern's orange light gets through the rubble and blocks of stone and lead over Robert.
Unconsciousness.
Sheets. A bed. People talking in whispers nearby. Warm sunlight. Free. Robert's back(cover) hurts. He tries to move, but his sheets hurt. No, his inside hurt. His cover is covered and the thought makes him laugh wearily. Face. Humans get near.
Some weeks pass until Robert has to declare at the trial. There, he realizes the old wizard is not and hopes the trial is not against Robert. He tells the judges what happened and then he's sent back to home but he's suspended for the duration of the trial and he's to present himself to the court every morning until the culprit is caught.
On the next months his savings disappear, he sells his possessions and his house, moves to a small rent room first and then to an alley. His hopes disappear as his savings, and in the cold rainy nights he thinks he could be no worse. He's trying to sleep despite the cold and the feeling that mold is getting in his insides when shouting wakes him up. A few young mages are shouting and laughing down the street. Somewhere he thinks it is probably celebration for the end of tests, and then the young, drunk wizards see him and point and laugh and get near. And then one of them thinks it'll be fun to poke the hobo with a little spark. Words and gestures and a little blue lightning orb flies from one student's hands to the half-awake Robert, who jumps with the shock. And then the pain mixes up with frustration and cold and rain and misery and energy breaks through Robert, blasts through his joints and reforms and purple and red lightning jump from Robert's hands to the students, who scream and fall and get up and ran away, still screaming.
Robert knows not what happened. Robert knows he's magic. Robert knows a world of possibilities but can not focus on any. Robert laughs while tears fall from his eyes to be clean by rain.
Robert is free.
Robert Smith
Human Chaos Mage 1
STR 10 CON 12 DEX 12 INT 16 WIS 10 CHA 18
HP 21 AC 12 PD 12 MD 15 Recoveries 8x(1d6+1)
Backgrounds: no-longer-frustrated librarian at Eldolan 4, Living spell 4
Relationships: Archmage (conflicted) 3
Unique: Nobody knows if he's still Robert or the spell that was in the book
Talents: Touch of Wizardry, Iconic Warp, Separate Existence (A)
Gear: dagger (1d4), hand crossbow (1d4)
Those two background were examples on 13 True Ways, and they were too good to pass.
Those two background were examples on 13 True Ways, and they were too good to pass.
1 comentario:
o you make fiction?d
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